The JAG in the Box 2049:
AFFORGEN, ACE, and the Future of Air Force Operations Law

Introduction

The Air Force is radically changing how it will organize, train, and equip the next generation of Airmen for future conflicts. For too long, the service has been “getting after” a counterterrorism strategy that defined combat operations and the operations law domain itself for nearly a quarter of a century. That strategy relied on truths and assumptions that future strategists and planners have generally dismissed as invalid in a future potential conflict with near-peer adversaries. Our leaders have seen the writing on the wall. The Air Force cannot continue to plan and operate under the current system and expect to prevail in the era of great power competition or worse—great power conflict. We must change, or we will lose.

To accelerate that change, new concepts have been introduced that will revolutionize the way the Air Force supports joint operations against near-peer adversaries in contested environments. Among these new concepts are the Air Force Force Generation (AFFORGEN) model that will replace the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) construct for how forces are presented to the combatant commander.[2] In addition, Mission Command, Agile Combat Employment (ACE) scheme of maneuver, Multi-Capable Airmen (MCA), and Wing A-Staff concepts have been embraced as the key to future employment of Air Force assets and personnel with an emphasis on deploying units that have trained together from numerous locations with a minimum footprint to “increase dispersal capabilities and complicate adversary targeting” to prevail in a future conflict with a near-peer enemy.[3]

In September 2023, Secretary Kendall announced the “next step” in AFFORGEN with the unveiling of the “Air Task Force” (ATF).[4] In February 2024, Secretary Kendall announced an additional set of 24 initiatives that would reshape how the Air Force not only provides forces to combatant commands via the ATF, but also how it is structured at home.[5] Under the ATF model, more Air Force installations will begin to have “a mission-focused wing and a separate unit that runs garrison functions.”[6] The operational wing will deploy on a rotational schedule, while the air base unit remains behind to run the base. Operational wings will be divided into three types: deployable combat wings, combat generation wings, and in-place wings. Even with these changes, the end-state remains the same, an “expeditionary air base team” that is designed to group, train, and deploy Airmen together in a “plug-and-play” model that better meets the requirements of Combatant Commanders and mirrors the other services’ expeditionary approaches.

These new concepts represent a dramatic change in Air Force culture. And like any immense change, they have faced their fair share of bureaucratic resistance, even as the Major Commands (MAJCOMs) begin transitioning their organizations and training to align with this new strategic direction. This resistance has manifested itself across all functional communities. Further, on their surface, some of these operating concepts appear to come into direct conflict with the statutory authority vested in The Judge Advocate General (TJAG) to control the assignment and deployment of judge advocates.[7] However, when we peel away at the onion, we find that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

To paraphrase recent comments from the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF), General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. we have done this before, and we can do it again. The history of the Operations Law domain is one of seismic shifts in how Air Force judge advocates supported military operations from the Korean War to the War on Terror. These shifts were often triggered in response to events on the battlefield.[8] Like those operations law pioneers of previous decades, we are now challenged with finding new ways to ensure our commanders comply with the law in future combat operations. This paper posits a future JAG Corps that has aligned itself to these new operational concepts. Utilizing an operations order (OPORD) framework, it borrows on recent lessons learned from Air Combat Command (ACC) “Lead Wing” exercises and “Wing A-Staff” implementation. While many of the concepts discussed here are still in development and subject to change, the fundamental tenets of AFFORGEN and ACE—namely having all personnel assigned to Force Elements aligned to a 24 month/4-phase cycle with a focus on units training, certifying, and deploying together as a more lean, agile, and lethal force—have remained consistent.

Situation

It is October 2049. Twenty-five years ago the Air Force completed its transition to the AFFORGEN model for force presentation to Joint Force Commanders (JFC) once all Force Elements reached initial operating capability. Force Elements are six operational capabilities that a JFC can request from the Air Force: (1) Mission Generation; (2) Open the Airbase; (3) Command and Control (C2); (4) Establish the Airbase; (5) Operate the Airbase; and (6) Robust the Airbase. In March 2023, the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations described the force elements as “three horizontal slices” with the C2 slice providing direction and control, the Mission Generation slice providing aircraft, pilots, maintainers, and other career fields necessary to generate air power, and finally the base operating or agile combat support slice that consists of packages that establish, operate, or robust the base.[10] All funded active-duty positions have been assigned to a 24-month rotational cycle with 6-month rotational phases (A, B, C, or D) and aligned to a specific Force Element or one of four other categories (Demand Force Teams (DFT), non-deployable Institutional and Infrastructure Forces, Employed in Place supporting homeland defense, or Supplementary Unit Type Codes (UTCs)).

Depending on what cycle and phase they are assigned to, personnel are either: (1) Available to Commit—where they have achieved peak readiness and are either deployed or ready to deploy; (2) Reset—either just returned from deployment or removed from the Available to Commit phase and focused on reintegration and reconstitution; (3) Prepare—building toward peak unit readiness while shielded from deployment; or (4) Ready (Certify)—working to achieve a high-level of readiness above the unit level for the high-end fight environment.

Ultimately, mission requirements determine what is sourced and from where and the phase alignment doesn’t necessarily mean units always deploy together. The preferred methodology is sourcing Mission Generation, C2 and Establish the Airbase from one base to the maximum extent possible. However, Operate the Airbase and Robust the Airbase Force Elements may still require crowd sourcing. Additionally, depending on the requirement, a Mission Generation Force Element may deploy to an already established base without the need to deploy the accompanying C2 or Establish the Airbase force elements since those capabilities will already exist at that established base.

In the years following the implementation of AFFORGEN, the Air Force continued to refine Air Force Doctrine Note (AFDN) 1-21, Agile Combat Employment, to better define how those forces are employed. First published in August 2022, AFDN 1-21 formalized the concepts of ACE and MCA. ACE is a scheme of maneuver designed to complicate an adversary’s ability to target and disrupt air combat operations.[11] MCA enables ACE by having Airmen trained to perform tasks outside of their core-specialty.[12] The goal of MCA is to have fewer Airmen in harm’s way capable of generating airpower than in the past. Another enabler of ACE is the concept of mission command, which demands that units be trained to operate via commander’s intent with limited direction from air operations centers or air component staffs in a contested environment where forces will be distributed and communications may be degraded.

To preserve Title 10 authority, TJAG directed the JAG Corps’ Professional Development Directorate (AF/JAX) to align the accession, assignment, and deployment processes to the AFFORGEN model to the maximum extent possible to meet the AFFORGEN intent for units to train, certify, and deploy together while retaining their statutory authority to modify or change the judge advocate assigned to a specified Force Element as necessary to ensure the right legal support is provided based on the anticipated mission during that unit’s ready to commit phase. The process was first formalized in Department of the Air Force Instruction 51-101 in June 2023 and subsequently updated as the process matured over the years since. In addition, the Career Field Education and Training Plans for both judge advocates and paralegals were eventually reviewed and modified to account for AFFORGEN, ACE, and MCA requirements—namely to modify tasks to reflect provision of full spectrum legal support with limited reach back in a contested environment and introduce these concepts earlier in both judge advocate and paralegal career development. The Operations and International Law Directorate (AF/JAO) and The Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School modified the curricula of resident courses to better reflect the potential that younger, less-experienced judge advocates and paralegals might be tasked to support large-scale combat operations in a potential future great power conflict against a near-peer adversary.[13] Legal Support doctrine was modified to reflect support to the AFFORGEN mission beyond traditional operational legal advice centered in the Air Operations Center. Lastly, TJAG later directed the formation of an “Expeditionary Legal Support System” or ELSS to formalize the legal support across the entire JAG Corps.

Loosely based on the Expeditionary Medical Support System (EMEDS) concept, ELSS was designed to be modular, starting with Level 1 support consisting of a “1+1” combat support judge advocate and paralegal UTC assigned to a wing’s C2 Force Element. In most cases, Level 1 support would come from the wing tasked to provide the C2 Force Element, however, if that base-level JAG support was unable to meet mission requirements as determined by TJAG, the Level 1 support could be replaced by another judge advocate or paralegal from the ELSS DFT with a preference to pull from regionally aligned locations. Level 1 support could also be sufficient to support the C2 Force Element and Operate the Airbase Force Element depending on the nature of the mission and size of the expeditionary air base.

The rest of the ELSS DFT consisted of all remaining judge advocates and paralegals across the JAG Corps who are not aligned to a wing’s C2 or Operate the Airbase Force Elements and not otherwise coded as institutional and infrastructure or employed in place. In short, the ELSS created a pool of judge advocates and paralegals that, depending on requirements and upon request, TJAG could direct replacement of the Level 1 support or augment that Level 1 support with Level 2 support which consists of additional or more experienced judge advocate and/or paralegal support and additional equipment as necessary to meet mission requirements. Level 2 support for an Operate the Airbase Force Element would first come from the Wing legal office and likewise be subject to TJAG approval. As with the C2 Force Element, TJAG could alter or augment that support from the DFT as necessary. Level 2 support also consisted of specialized legal support to unique missions (e.g., Air Operations Centers, Special Operations Forces, or other Joint Requirements). Finally, Level 3 support consisted of manning and equipment necessary to establish full spectrum legal support (e.g., military justice, claims, legal assistance) typical of a home-station legal office or enduring overseas locations as part of the Robust the Airbase Force Element. The ultimate aim of the ELSS was to ensure TJAG had maximum flexibility to assign the right personnel to the right mission requirement.

Mission

In late autumn 2049, the United States launched an air assault against a uranium enrichment plant built in violation of a multilateral NATO treaty that national command authorities declared a direct threat to the allies in the region. The facility was taken out before it could become operational by US Navy F-18s piloted by elite TOP GUN graduates launched from a carrier strike group. In response to this attack, the rogue nation controlling the plant declared war against the United States and its allies. Utilizing its remaining fleet of fifth generation fighters, a retaliatory strike was launched against Kazansky Air Base (AB), an enduring overseas location in a neighboring allied nation. The attack has rendered the base non-operational. The Combatant Commander has requested that a new expeditionary air base be established in the allied nation to commence a counterattack on enemy’s remaining air assets. There are multiple alternative airfields that the host nation has made available for use; however, each of them is vulnerable to attack by the enemy. To complicate the ability of the enemy to target the new base with its fighters, the new expeditionary air base must employ the ACE scheme of maneuver. The Combined Joint Force Air Component Commander (CJFACC) has already identified two of the bases for a Main Operating Base (MOB) and Forward Operating Base (FOB), the remaining airfields will be reserved as contingency locations.

Execution

Maverick Air Force Base (AFB) is an ACC “lead wing” base. It has just entered the “Available to Commit” phase of the AFFORGEN cycle and in summer 2049 it completed an ACC “lead wing” certification exercise, AGILE FLAG. It is prepared to deploy multiple Force Elements. The Staff Judge Advocate (SJA), Lieutenant Colonel Pete Mitchell, working with the Numbered Air Force (NAF) and MAJCOM SJAs and AF/JAX, ensured that all personnel in the office, including himself, were properly aligned to either support the wing’s C2 and Operate the Airbase Force Elements or assigned to the ELSS DFT. Captain Natasha Trace and Staff Sergeant Robert Floyd are the primary legal team assigned to support the wing’s C2 Force Element during this AFFORGEN phase.

Captain Trace and Staff Sergeant Floyd are the Chief and Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of Operations Law and are the legal advisors to the Wing’s “A-Staff,” attending weekly staff meetings and other planning meetings. Anticipating a potential deployment to support NATO allies, the A-Staff has been working through the NAF and MAJCOM to develop preliminary plans and additional training for a deployment to the region. The SJA has been kept apprised of this planning effort and in turn has kept the NAF and MAJCOM SJAs and AF/JAX informed on the status. While Captain Trace is a first-assignment judge advocate, she has proven herself ready to support wing operations by excelling during AGILE FLAG, the expanded operations law curriculum at the Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course, and the modified ACE Operations Law Course. Staff Sergeant Floyd has likewise benefited from the expanded operations law curriculum at Paralegal Apprentice Course and accomplished the expanded 5-level operations law tasks. He also attended the ACE Operations Law Course. Both have completed all Ready Airman Training requirements. During AGILE FLAG both Captain Trace and Staff Sergeant Floyd were field tested through injects approved by the NAF and MAJCOM and proved themselves ready to provide full spectrum legal advice to the command.

After the strike, Captain Trace and Staff Sergeant Floyd are formally tasked to deploy with Maverick AFB’s C2 Force Element into the Area of Responsibility (AOR). AF/JAX approves the deployment on behalf of TJAG. Additional squadrons of aircraft from other wings will also be attached to the expeditionary air base and fall under the C2 of the Maverick AFB-led Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW) at the deployed location. Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, given his own operations law expertise, has been tagged to augment the theater Air Operations Center.[14]

Given that the anticipated mission will involve potential 24/7 combat operations, the SJA working with the wing commander, requested Level 2 legal support to augment Captain Trace and Staff Sergeant Floyd on their deployment. AF/JAX validates the request and tasks Major Beau Simpson from the ELSS DFT to deploy with Maverick AFB to augment the legal support. Major Simpson is currently assigned to the Operations and International Law Directorate and has extensive operations law experience. Like Maverick AFB, he was also in the “Available to Commit” phase of the AFFORGEN cycle and therefore knew of his vulnerability to deploy beginning in October 2049.

Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, Major Simpson, and Captain Trace begin to coordinate how they will provide legal support to the expeditionary air base based on the anticipated mission. This training primarily involves how they will advise the wing as it executes combat operations without an approved Air Tasking Order from the Air Operations Center in the event of communications being severed or worse. They study the Mission-Type-Orders already being issued by the Combatant Commander and CJFACC.

Staff Sergeant Floyd is also tasked with additional training under the MCA concept. He is trained to augment security forces and certain aspects of flightline operations in case it is required. While he is expected to execute his primary duties as a deployed paralegal, he is prepared to help generate airpower if the need arises. Staff Sergeant Floyd is also trained to sit in the Wing Operations Center to properly identify issues and alert Captain Trace or Major Simpson when legal advice needs to be rendered.

Sustainment

Upon arrival at their deployed location, the C2 Force Element legal team gets to work setting up operations. They ensure that they have a seat in the Wing Operations Center with access to classified and unclassified Air Force network terminals. Major Simpson and Captain Trace begin 12-hour shifts. Staff Sergeant Floyd works a swing shift to support both officers. Communication with higher headquarters is still intact. They coordinate with Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell and other JAGs on shift in the Combat Operations Division of the theater AOC and they proactively establish procedures and expectations should those communications be disrupted. At the same time, the CJFACC provides his intent to the Air Expeditionary Wing Commander in the event communications are lost. Mission-Type-Orders “with clearly communicated commander’s intent to empower front-line decision makers (e.g., strike package leaders, air battle managers, forward air controllers) to make effective on-scene decisions during complex, rapidly unfolding operations” are continually issued.[15] In these early months, the legal team handles other issues relating to operating the base without the need for additional legal support.

Three months into operations, the decision is made to expand combat operations and increase the footprint at the deployed location—now named Bradshaw AB, while also dispersing more capabilities to forward operating sites and contingency locations.[16] With additional personnel inbound from multiple installations there is an increased need to support good order and discipline and provide other deployed civil and fiscal law and contracting legal support. The recommendation is to expand legal support by creating a full-service legal office on the base. More Level 2 support is requested with an additional “1+1” judge advocate and paralegal team from the DFT to expand the legal office on the base. This team will only deploy for the remaining three months of the AFFORGEN phase. Upon completion of the AFFORGEN phase, all legal personnel are replaced with personnel from the next AFFORGEN phase for the following six months. The rotation continues throughout the conflict as long as there remains a requirement for robust legal support on the installation.

Communication

The future scenario presented here is just one possible approach the JAG Corps may take in executing AFFORGEN and ACE. Different MAJCOMs have taken different approaches to this effort. What right looks like has yet to be determined. However, to get ahead of this coming sea change, it is imperative that the JAG Corps begins to address the fundamental concepts underlying both AFFORGEN and ACE. Judge advocates and paralegals must be ready to provide full spectrum legal support in those highly contested environments described by General Charles Q. Brown above. This may mean challenging our modern notions of legal support to operations and looking to examples set during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and DESERT STORM. Many valuable lessons learned from those conflicts are captured in special editions of the Air Force Law Review, The JAG Reporter, and The First 50 Years: The U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Department. Success may mean returning to the ways of the distant past as long as we are careful to not repeat the same mistakes. We have done it before; we CAN do it again. Like those TOP GUN pilots, it will ultimately come down to the JAG in the Box.

About the Author

Lieutenant Colonel Jason S. DeSon, USAF

(A.A., Fullerton College, Fullerton, California; B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, California; J.D., Whittier College, Costa Mesa, California; LL.M., The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia; Master of Military Operational Art and Science, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama) is the Staff Judge Advocate, 23d Wing, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.

Endnotes